Latest news with #EttoreSottsass
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
How to get the 80s look for your home on the high street
Spearheaded by the celebrated Italian designer Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) in Milan during the early 1980s as a reaction against minimalism, Memphis style embraced clashing block colours, haphazard arrangements and energetic patterns. Famously described by Bertrand Pellegrin, founder and principal of retail consultancy as a 'shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price', it drew inspiration from art deco trends of the interwar period as well as mid-century pop art. It was a love-it-or-hate-it style that quickly gained global fame, with collectors including David Bowie and Karl Lagerfeld. Although original pieces, such as the iconic Mandarin table (currently available on for a hefty £20,500) may be out of reach, the high street has several Memphis-style collections that are easy on the purse strings. At DFS there's the Cosma desk (opposite) and fluted Enchanted corner sofas, in a range of bold and vibrant shades. Meanwhile at Habitat you'll find a number of textiles and 80s-inspired furniture. Our favourite is the Tuva curved chair (below). Don't know where to start? 'A classic stripe will add an instant flash of Memphis,' says Lena Gierasinska, head of product and displays at Barker and Stonehouse. 'Introduce squiggle prints, fluted wooden detailing and curved seating to complete the look.' GET THE LOOK Tuva Fabric Curved Chair £225 Shop Split Shift Tile Green 2 £225.50 per sq metre Shop Yolk yellow tube cordless table lamp £110 Shop Sorriso Cobalt Blue Glass Vase £18 Shop Planter Churros Pink £60 Shop Vändplats rug £75 Shop Swerve Cushion £25 Shop Pink Wiggle Side Table £55 Shop Cosma Desk
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
How the humble teapot morphed from kitchen staple to designer icon
The British think the cuppa is their national treasure, but a new interest in tea sets among young people is bringing with it an interest in the international cultural significance of the teatime ritual. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Online vintage homeware marketplace Vinterior reports a six-fold increase in teapot purchases over the past six months, while sales at John Lewis are up 22%. The Ulla Floral fine teapot in a gift box is its current bestseller. A survey of 2,000 millennials by the home improvement store B&Q earlier this year found that 26% of those surveyed think teapots are back in fashion. The trend is driven by the enduring traditional homeware aesthetic known as cottagecore. Online marketplace Etsy included the intriguing specific 'French cottage' as one of its key trends for 2025 as it says searches for 'French cottage decor' are up 26,000% from last year. The practice of 'tablescaping', the Instagram-friendly trend for setting up intricate and artistic table placements, has also driven sales as people search for eye-catching china. 'There is nothing more whimsical than a teapot,' said a spokesperson for Vinterior. 'Many people automatically think of classic chintz – à la Women's Institute – but [there is a] huge breadth of design-led teapots available, including designs by [postmodern Italian designer] Ettore Sottsass and classic art deco styles.' Teapots have captured artists' and designers' imagination of late. The Pet Shop Boys issued a tea set to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary – created by graphic designer Mark Farrow with Duchess China – while teapots were a highlight of the recent Milan design week. Spanish fashion house Loewe – whose creative director Jonathan Anderson announced his move to Dior last week – held an exhibition at Milan of artist-made teapots including designs by ceramicist Edmund de Waal and designer David Chipperfield alongside less practical creations, such as a wonky tea urn by German conceptual artist Rosemarie Trockel and a teapot by Patricia Urquiola which looks like a purple squirrel. At next month's London craft week (LCW), teapots are also taking centre stage. Ceramicist Ömer Öner's colourful work will appear at the Craft In Evolution exhibition at the Oxo Tower gallery while metalworkers Takeshi Fujii and Crystal Liew's joint collection of teapots and kettles will be on show at Craft on Peel and Hketo at the Royal Society of Sculptors. Luxury tea brand Newby London is hosting the exhibition, New Forms: Tea and Contemporary Design, at their Clerkenwell showroom during LCW. Nirmal Sethia, chair of Newby Teas, has the world's greatest collection of teaware, collected and named in honour of his wife, Chitra. Sethia designed the world's most expensive teapot, the Egoist, which is covered in 1,658 diamonds and 386 rubies, with a handle made of mammoth ivory, and is designed to hold a single cup of tea. 'Teaware is a reflection of culture, artistry and the evolution of human connection,' says Sethia. 'For over 5,000 years, the design and craftsmanship of teapots, cups and other teaware have mirrored the values, aesthetics and rituals of the societies that created them. 'To understand the history of teaware is to understand the role tea has played in shaping economies, social customs, and artistic movements. In today's world, where mass production often overshadows traditional skill, it becomes ever more important to protect and promote craftsmanship and artists.' This is a point made by both Liew and Fujii, artists with Malaysian and Japanese heritage respectively. 'Teapots hold significant cultural importance in my heritage, representing a rich tea culture that I deeply value,' says Liew. 'Over the years, I have noticed a shift in attention and appreciation for this tradition. As part of the younger generation, I hope that through our new interpretations we can breathe fresh life into this traditional figure and preserve its legacy.' Fujii believes that, as an enduring and practical piece of kitchenware, teapots are a record of the craft and influences of local makers. His are made using 'Tsubame-Tuiki-douki', a metal-beating technique from Tsubame, Niigata prefecture, where he grew up. 'These are tools that allow the user and those who spend time with them to enjoy daily richness and peace of mind. They are also important, familiar tools that are needed to enjoy those moments.' More high net worth individuals are collecting handcrafted objects and recognising their artistic value and at the same time more people are taking up crafting as a meaningful hobby or side-hustle. The intersection of craft, tradition and art is important to current creative industries – and teapots fit into this perfectly. As a craft project, though, they're probably best left to the professionals. Emily Johnson is director of 1882 Ltd, a Stoke-on-Trent pottery company which collaborates with artists such as Max Lamb and Giles Deacon. Johnson says: 'Teapots are one of the most complex things for a pottery factory to make. A very posh teapot requires holes punctured in the body, a spout cast off and stuck on in clay, a handle cast off and stuck on in clay, and the nob of the lid cast off and stuck on. And then don't get me started on whether the spout drips or not.'
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
These Are the Buildings You Need to See in Milan
Milan is among Italy's largest and most influential cities: Founded in 590 B.C., it eventually became the capital of the Lombardy region. Yet for centuries, it was somewhat overlooked as a cultural hub; while Rome, Florence and Venice were widely viewed as Italy's seats of intellectual and artistic production, Milan was seen mainly as a gray, unromantic city of industry and finance. However, during the so-called Italian economic miracle, the boom that followed World War II, Milan emerged as a design center. Large companies like Pirelli, Olivetti and Fiat — manufacturers of tires, office equipment and automobiles, respectively — began to provide patronage to designers such as Gio Ponti and Ettore Sottsass, resulting in enduring examples of Italian design such as the former's 1958 Pirelli Tower skyscraper and the latter's 1969 Valentine typewriter. Milan's rise to a fashion capital in the 1980s added to its prestige, and many of the architecturally significant buildings constructed since then were created for and financed by its leading brands in manufacturing, publishing and, especially, fashion. Below are 10 sights, listed in the order in which they were built, that showcase the diversity of Milan's centuries of architecture. 1. Duomo of Milan Construction on the Duomo of Milan, the city's cathedral, began in the 14th century, but the building wasn't officially completed until 1965. The project was led by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan, who imagined a church made from the unique pinkish white marble of the Candoglia quarry, north of the city, and brought on the French architect-engineers Nicolas de Bonaventure and Jean Mignot to realize his vision according to the latest Gothic fashions. They erected a tall, light-filled nave supported by flying buttresses. For reasons including shifts in funding and political leadership, work on the cathedral continued in fits and starts over the course of centuries — although there was notable progress in the early 1800s, when Napoleon, who was crowned king of Italy at the Duomo, ordered that the city finish the building's facade. 2. Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II This grand four-story shopping arcade was designed by the architect Giuseppe Mengoni in the neo-Renaissance style, with imposing arched entrances, ornately carved pilasters and a large glass dome at its center. Finished in 1877, three decades before Paris's flagship Galeries Lafayette department store, to which it's sometimes compared, it's widely considered the world's oldest shopping center and has hosted some of Milan's most storied brands — including Prada, which has sold luggage and leather goods in the arcade since 1913. 3. Villa Necchi Campiglio The Quadrilatero del Silenzio in central Milan is one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods, filled with grand homes in the stile Liberty, Italy's version of Art Nouveau. At the center is the Villa Necchi Campiglio, built between 1932 and 1935 for the prominent industrialist family after which it's named. The architect, Piero Portaluppi, was known for combining geometric Bauhaus forms with sumptuous materials — rare marbles, such as jade-green Verde Prato, were a favorite — and the latest technologies. At the two-story Villa Necchi Campiglio, built of stone with a marble trim, he incorporated intercoms, an elevator and a heated pool as well as walnut and rosewood floors and silk-covered walls. Famously the backdrop for Luca Guadagnino's film 'I Am Love' (2009), the house is also the setting for T Magazine's annual party during the Salone del Mobile design fair. 4. Villa Borsani Milan didn't have a design school until the 1980s; before then, the architects of a home would often also design the furniture, decorative objects and even flatware. The Villa Borsani, located in the Varedo municipality north of Milan, is a prime example of this approach. The architect Osvaldo Borsani completed the house for his family in 1945 in the prevailing Rationalist style, which has much in common with Bauhaus design: He emphasized geometric shapes and functional touches, like concrete loggias suited to the sunny climate. Alongside bent plywood and industrial rubber pieces from Tecno, the experimental furniture company co-founded by Borsani and his brother, the residence contains finishes that were novel at the time, including glass railings for the foyer staircase; abstract mosaics in the bathroom; and a sculptural ceramic fireplace by the artist Lucio Fontana, a close family friend. 5. Castello Sforzesco Named after the Sforza family, who ruled Milan during the 15th and 16th centuries, the Castello Sforzesco is one of the largest fortified buildings in Europe. Initially constructed from brick in the mid-14th century and protected by battlements and a central watchtower, the castle was the residence for Milan's ruling families until Italy's unification in the 1800s. In 1948, after the castle — which was being used as a civic library and museum — had been heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II, the Milanese government hired the prominent architecture firm BBPR to revitalize the site. In addition to incorporating distinctive modern entrances and new staircases throughout, the firm designed oversize exhibition cases made of steel, glass and wood to help mediate between the large scale of the castle's halls and the variety of historical objects in the collection, including life-size wooden statues and early 20th-century decorative bowls and vases. 6. Torre Velasca When skyscrapers began to crop up in Milan after World War II, as part of Italy's wider push to update its cities, many locals were resistant to the idea of the modern towers interrupting the landscape of traditional low-rise buildings. The Torre Velasca, located in Milan's city center, offered a compromise. Built in 1958 by BBPR, the 26-floor skyscraper is reminiscent of a medieval watchtower, with dark stone cladding, deep-set windows and a mushroom-like top supported by visible struts. In front is an open plaza — another riff on a medieval tradition that provides precious outdoor space in Milan's increasingly dense urban center. Still primarily an office building, the Torre Velasca now houses short- and medium-term rental apartments and restaurants. 7. Church of Santa Maria Annunciata During his nearly 60-year career, the polymathic architect and designer Gio Ponti developed several signature styles, including his versions of neo-Classicism and Rationalism, but one constant was his use of diamonds as a motif. The faceted shape informed everything from the silhouette of his cutlery to the form of his 1958 skyscraper the Pirelli Tower, for years Milan's tallest tower. It also appears throughout the Church of Santa Maria Annunciata, which Ponti built between 1964 and 1969 as a place of solace for visitors and patients of the adjacent San Carlo Borromeo Hospital, after which the church was originally named. Here, not just the footprint but the doorways, windows and altar are fashioned in diamondlike shapes. Even the thousands of tiles that cover the facade are faceted like cut stones. Though the church is one of Ponti's lesser-known buildings in Milan, it's one of the most striking examples of his exuberant modernist architecture. 8. Da Giacomo With its green-painted, delicate boiserie, handmade lace curtains and antique wooden cafe chairs, the restaurant Da Giacomo, at the edge of Milan's historic center, looks as if it's been operating since the height of the stile Liberty, at the end of the 19th century. In fact, it's been open in this location only since 1989; its interiors are a sleight of hand dreamed up by the interior designer Renzo Mongiardino, who created flamboyant theater and film sets as well as homes for Milan's elite before his death in 1998. Today, the restaurant serves simple, mostly fish dishes using the highest-quality ingredients, in a space filled with antiques. Because most of Mongiardino's creations were either ephemeral stage designs or private apartments — he designed homes for several of Truman Capote's Swans, including Marella Agnelli and Lee Radziwill — Da Giacomo offers a rare chance to see his work in person. 9. Bosco Verticale Built by the architect Stefano Boeri in 2014, in the then newly developed Porta Nuova district north of Milan's center, the experimental Bosco Verticale was envisioned as a new model for sustainable design. Conceived by Boeri as an alternative to traditional glass or stone skyscrapers, the innovative complex of 111 apartments comprises two towers (which have 19 and 27 floors, respectively) with steel-reinforced concrete balconies that display over 90 species of plants, including over 700 trees. Inspired by various historical sites, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Casa nel Bosco — a midcentury house surrounded by a dense forest in Varese that was designed by Boeri's mother, the celebrated architect Cini Boeri — the Bosco Verticale contains so much flora that the building has its own microclimate, which cools the apartments during Milan's hot and humid summers. 10. Fondazione Prada In 2010, about three decades after taking over and transforming her family's leather accessories business, the fashion designer Miuccia Prada decided to open a contemporary art center in Milan that would house her sprawling art collection. She chose an abandoned former gin distillery in the Largo Isarco neighborhood at the edge of the city as a site and brought on the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his avant-garde firm OMA to renovate and expand it. The resulting complex of 10 buildings, which provides a venue for both temporary and permanent exhibitions, juxtaposes industrial materials with surprising details. For example, Koolhaas covered the exterior and interior surfaces of the Podium building, one of the new structures, in a flame-resistant metallic foam that's made by injecting air into molten aluminum. Nearby is the Haunted House — named by Koolhaas when he first saw the then-neglected building — which he coated entirely in 20-karat gold leaf. With its idiosyncratic use of materials and innovative exhibition spaces, the Fondazione Prada has become a model for displaying art in the 21st century.
